Meet Jaime
by Strangerine
Summary: Jane was there when Jamie was born. She wasn't there when Jaime died. Cover Art belongs to Gikat @ DeviantArt.


"Here, Jane," her father says. "Meet Jaime. Your sister."

The little girl steps forward, her eyes wide as she takes the small squirming bundle into her arms. The creature wiggles in the blankets, making Jane gasp as a wrinkly face writhes into sight. The girl has big brown eyes, and a fuzzy tuft of hair upon her head. Jaime looks at her sister and begins to wail.

Jane tightens up. "She doesn't like me," she announces.

Her father quickly scoops Jaime back up and returns her to her mother. "Of course not," Father assures her. "She's just hungry, is all."

True enough, once Jaime is returned to her mother's arms and allowed to feed, she calms. Jane slowly crawls up on the hospital bed beside her mother, letting her fingers brush her sister's velvety-soft cheek. "She's so tiny," Jane murmurs.

"She is," Mother says, and her smile is tired. She tries to look pleased, for her older daughter's sake, but worry lingers in her gaze, in the concerned wrinkles beside her eyes. Jane is too young to really understand what happened, then, but she knows her sister is much smaller than most babies. "You'll have to take care of her, Jane," Mom whispers.

Jane lets Jaime grab her fingers and chew on them. A small smile spreads across the little girl's lips. "I will," she whispers. "I will."

* * *

><p>They're older, now. Jaime is a rambunctious toddler, and Jane is a tween who has learned that younger siblings are "uncool." She scowls as Jaime begins playing with all her things, pulling on her bedsheets and messing up the careful order of her stuffed animals. Those are uncool too, but at least stuffed animals don't drool on Jane's friends.<p>

"Jaime, go away!" Jane shouts, and the toddler pouts, using one pudgy finger to pull out her lower lip. The older girl does not relent. "I said _go away_!"

This time, small tears form in the child's eyes, and she turns and runs out of the room. Jane feels a pang of guilt. She sits at her desk for a moment longer, before standing and running after her sister.

Jaime is sobbing in her room, surrounded by all her childish toys. Jane attempts to walk up to her and pull her in for a hug, but Jaime jerks away. "You hate me!" she wails.

Jane swallows, the guilt stronger now. "No, I don't," she says quietly. "I just want you to stay out of my room."

Jaime is unimpressed with this apology. She sniffles and wipes her eyes, but turns her back to her sister. "Go away," she mumbles, and her words are slurred together from both her age and her tears.

Jane sighs and sits down on the carpet floor. "I'm sorry, Jaime," she says. "I love you, you know that?"

Jaime pauses, then she turns around and throws herself at Jane for a hug. Jane jerks, startled, then returns the hug with all the strength she has.

* * *

><p>"Jaaaaaane," Jaime whines, tugging on her sister's sleeve as they walk through the amusement park. "I gotta go <em>pee<em>."

"Shut up, Jaime," Jane hisses. She turns back to her friends, who are all giggling and talking among themselves. They're not really her friends, but they're the closest she has to some. Jane is not the most social of creatures. She groans when she feels Jaime tug on her sleeve again. She turns to argue with her sister when one of the other girls points and speaks.

"Look!" The girl exclaims. "A rollercoaster! We _have _to ride it."

"Um, okay," is Jane's unenthusiastic reply, but she is drowned out by the eager babbling of her other companions. As the rest of the group races after the rollercoaster, Jane grabs her sister by the hand and drags her along. When they reach the rollercoaster, it is discovered that Jaime is just a hair too small to ride.

Jane looks from her kid sister to her so-called friends and back. "Look," she commands, "just stay here until the rides over. I'll be right back."

Jaime opens her mouth to protest but by then Jane is gone, having vanished into the throng of people in the amusement park.

The line is long and boring. Jane gets tired of listening to the other girls talk about movies she hasn't seen, actors and actresses she doesn't care about, and books she's never read. Now, she questions her logic of some bad friends being better than no friends at all. As she ponders this, she makes sure to keep an eye on Jaime standing just outside the current of people, making sure she keeps eye contact as the line gets shorter and shorter.

Eventually, Jane and the other girls get to go on the ride, and Jane has to lose sight of Jaime for a minute. They go on the mediocre ride, with no real drops or surprises even, but the others seem to enjoy it. After a cold spray of water at the end, the group dismounts the ride, soaking wet. Jane steps away from the others to find Jaime at the spot where she left her.

She isn't there.

Jane freezes. "Jaime?" she calls. Then her voice turns to panic. "_Jaime!_"

She starts racing around the park, looking everywhere, shouting her name. Tears are running down her cheeks as fear and worry overtakes her. Her whole body is trembling, her heart pounding, and she can barely see through the mist that covers her eyes.

After what feels like an eternity, Jane finds a blond little girl leaving one of the port-o-potty sections of the park, the bathrooms that have portable sinks and hand sanitizer that is always about to run out stacked against the fence that divides the toilets from the rest of the park. Jane lets out a cry and runs to her sister's side.

"Don't you ever do that again," she yells, her voice raw and hoarse. The scream isn't one of anger, but of absolute terror. Jaime stands there, letting Jane hug her and sob all over her. "Never again."

* * *

><p>They're teenagers, now. Jane is finishing up highschool, getting herself ready for college. And Jaime has just recently discovered boys. Her boyfriend is young, handsome, some sort of sports player. Too lean for football, but maybe hockey or soccer. Honestly, Jane's never asked.<p>

When she protested her sister dating so young, Jaime just gave the snarky reply of, "Just because you're a virgin doesn't mean nobody else can have any fun, Jane." The older girl could have argued that point, but she felt doing so would just make her look ridiculous. So she stays out of her sister's love life.

Which is why it's so surprising when Jaime bursts into her room, her face red and tearful. "J-Jane," she sputters, "Oh my god. J-Jane..." She throws herself into her shocked sister's arms, sobbing into her chest.

"What?" Jane asks, pulling her upright and meeting her eyes. "What's happened? Who died?"

"My bf..." Jane is too preoccupied with Jaime's tears to be irritated by the shorthand. "...he _cheated _on me. I found him with another girl, a-and..."

That's all Jane needs to hear. She swallows, her eyes becoming hard and determined. She kisses her sister's forehead and gets her a glass of ice water. "I've got to go," she says, her voice dangerous. "I'll be back soon."

The next day, Jaime's ex-boyfriend comes to school with a bruised jaw and a fear in his eyes. Jaime is shocked when he apologises to her and informs the whole school that he cheated on her. As he addresses his class before the teacher comes in, telling them in graphic detail about he broke Jaime's heart, he keeps glancing towards the windows at the far wall of the classroom, as if he's scared of something watching him.

And out of the corner of her eyes, Jaime sees Jane in the window.

* * *

><p>"Jane," Jaime asks, frightened and shaky. "Where are we going? Where's Mom? Dad?"<p>

Jane keeps her voice steady when she replies. "Just stay close, Jaime. Don't go anywhere without me."

"But, Jane-"

"Jaime, be quiet."

"Jane-"

"_Jaime._"

"Jane, I'm _scared._"

This sets the older woman off. "And you think I'm not?" she shouts, turning to look at her sister with madness in her eyes. "Mom and Dad are fucking dead, Jaime. Everyone is, now. You think I'm not scared? 'Cause I'm fucking scared. I'm scared fucking shitless. I was supposed to be in class, Jaime. I'm supposed to be earning my credits right fucking now, but instead I'm running from zombies that used to be my family and friends. And if you don't want to be one too, you'll fucking stop acting like a whiny little bitch baby and get your shit together. You're seventeen, Jaime. Buck the fuck up."

Her passionate tirade is interrupted when three undead emerge from the woods to their side. Jaime screams, but Jane just grabs her wrists and forces her to run alongside her. "Just run!" Jane cries. "And don't look back!"

* * *

><p>The older sister grunts as she pushes a dresser forward, bracing the front door of the house. "Jaime!" she screams, her voice raw with panic as more undead push themselves against the windows, making the glass crack. Jaime is lying on the floor in the living room, her eyes shut. "<em>Jaime!"<em>

"I'm done, Jane," Jaime whispers, her eyes still not open. "I want to die. Let them take me."

"I'm not letting them eat you," Jane sobs. "Come on! We've got enough time; we can get out of here!"

"No."

Jane is crying, violently now. "I won't let them eat you!" she screams against, screaming into Jaime's ear in the hope it'll draw a reaction. She buries her face in her sister's neck, letting her tears dampen the skin there. "Please get up," she pleads. "Please run."

"No."

Jane sobs again, the sounds of the undead filling her ears as she pulls her sister's arms over her shoulders and drags her towards the back door of the house, where hopefully they will have enough time to jump the yard fence and make for the woods. Jane keeps crying, screaming and yelling and pulling Jaime across the floor. She hears the wood of the front door splinter.

"Jane, just leave me. Save yourself."

"_No!" _Jane screams. She drops her sister and throws a nearby book, breaking the window at the back of the house. She grabs her sister's hand. She can't get her through the window on her own, and she knows that. "Jaime, get up. Please, get up. Get up, get up, get up, get up, get _up. Please._"

"No, Jane."

Jane lets out another animalistic cry and shakes her sister's shoulders. "Jaime! Get up!" She shakes her sister, grabs her, yanks her, slaps her. Finally, she punches her right in the nose. Jaime doesn't even react, her expression one of peace and relaxation even as blood dribbles down her cheek. Jane sobs.

"Goodbye, Jane," Jaime whispers, and now she's smiling.

Jane screams without words. She swallows through her dry throat, and turns to see a walker no less than three feet away from her. It's die together, or live alone. Jane screams again.

She kisses her sister's forehead and vaults through the window, jumping the fence with ease and running screaming into the woods.

Jaime doesn't make a sound as she dies.

* * *

><p>"Hello?"<p>

Jane is torn from her thoughts by a little girl's voice. Her heart skips a beat and she turns to see a little girl wearing a baseball cap staring at her. She scowls and the little girl backs away, going off to talk to one of the other new people.

Jane sighs and leans back against her bed. She can't control when the memories come back. Sometimes all it takes is a smell, a touch, a smile, and then her feels her heart shattering into a thousand pieces all over again.

Now. Where was she? Oh, yes.

_"Here, Jane," her father says. "Meet Jaime. Your sister."_

* * *

><p><strong>I seem to have a thing for anecdotal fics. "Lonely Days" and "Kenny" are some of my better pieces, I think. I also seem to have a thing for sisters, with a stoic older sister and an emotionally vulnerable younger sister. We're going to pretend this is not because that's actually my life.<strong>

**In all seriousness though, I think this is part of why I emphasize with Jane so much. I love my younger sister more than almost anything else, and the idea of losing her the way Jane did, might break me in much the same way. So this fic breaks my heart. **

**But anyway. I guess I can't ask you if you enjoyed reading, because, holy shit, but I hope you appreciated the work. Thanks for reading.**


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